A personal motto of mine is, "If you don't do it with passion and conviction, whats the point?" I feel like if I'm going to do something, I sure as hell better put my heart in it and commit wholly to the project, whatever it may be. No doubt, I wanted my Master's Thesis to reflect this state of mind. If this thing is going to be bound, booked, and possibly published in journals, I want it to be something worth while and that I can look at with the utmost pride and say "Yeah, thats mine."
With that in mind, I decided last spring that a good project for me would be a Rhetorical Criticism of Martin Luther's 95 Thesis' that he nailed to the huge wooden door of the Catholic Church. Viva La Revolucion! I checked out 18 books on Luther, Medieval Religion, The Papacy, etc. when I left Mt. Pleasant in May.
A bit ass-backwards, I e-mailed my rhetoric professor in June and asked him what he thought of my proposal. Here is the reply I received:
Hi Katey! I'm not sure I'm the best person for this project. I don't speak German, not well versed in the history, and I'm not clear on how you'd go about doing this project. It seems like a large project. Do you have a theoretical perspective you'd like to bring to bear on the act of defying the authority of the church? Is there some reason you don't want to followthrough on the 750 project?
F!
Alright. Well, this could be a blessing in disguise. My 750 project I really enjoyed writing, and since this Fall is going to be so incredibly busy with 4 classes on top of teaching 2 courses, maybe this is best. It's kind of the easy way out, which makes me cringe a bit, but my Prospectus is basically done, so I could defend that in the early winter and have an extremely easy Spring semester just preparing to defend my finely tuned and finished Thesis. Hmm...
Now if I go get my PhD, I want to do my dissertation on Communication with Alzheimer's Patients. A Rhetorical Criticism isn't going to look too hot to admissions in a highly qualitative and quantitative area of study. DAMNIT! Back to the drawing board...
Or maybe not. I took quant. research in the Spring. I said I was done with studying death, but maybe I don't have to be. This could work out swimmingly, and here is why:
I took 601. I have to take 600 this Fall. It would be who of me to use the same project to keep stress to a minimum. I've already done the actual research and put together the survey for this study. 600 just teaches me how to write an extremely long Literature Review. That means, I expand on the shorter lit review I've already got finished, I have my prospectus done, and I have 1 less paper to write for a class. Basically, I'm using 600 like a whore and writing my Thesis for it instead of picking another topic and starting all over.
And here is why I win. The study I conducted last spring for 601 entitled "The Influence of a Family Death on College Achievement", this study yielded significant statistics that death was paralyzing to students and their perceived academic success dropped post death, however, they felt that with social support, they were enabled to recover more quickly and the grieving process was more bareable. Therefore, if I decide to do this as my Thesis [which I more than likely will now], I might have a higher chance of getting it published in a journal, and then my chances of getting into a PhD program go up with each published article.
In conclusion, what I thought was a huge let down has now become an advantage to me.
I win! Why do you win? Cause I win.
...Now The Clouds Are Gone, All Your Tomorrows Shine.
No comments:
Post a Comment